Singapore's Ascott to have 1,600 serviced apartment units in India

Ronald Tay

Singapore-based The Ascott Ltd will be managing a portfolio of 1,600 serviced apartment units in the Indian market in the coming years. A wholly-owned serviced residence business unit of Singapore's CapitaLand, Ascott is taking the equity participation route to expand its presence in the country. The company currently has a portfolio of 7 projects in key Indian metros. Under various stages of development, these projects are coming up in cities like Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Overseeing the company’s business in India, Ronald Tay, chief investment officer, The Ascott Ltd, said, the first serviced residence, Somerset Greenways, will open in the first half of 2011. “Featuring 187 apartment units, the property is located in the MRC Nagar area in Chennai. This apart, we have recently partnered with RMZ Corp to develop a 203-unit serviced residence there. It's a joint venture wherein Ascott has acquired 50% stake in the project for Rs 151.75 mn (approximately Singapore $4.36 mn),” said Tay. This JV with Bangalore-based realtor (RMZ) will also see launch of Ascott's first Citadines apart’hotel brand in India to be operational in 2014.

On whether the company will make further investments in India going forward, Tay said there is tremendous potential for Ascott to grow in India. “We will expand our presence in through both direct investments and management contracts. In addition to expanding presence in the existing cities, we will be continuously seeking opportunities for growth in other markets like Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune,” he said without divulging financial details about their overall investment plans in India.

Citadines Galleria Bangalore

Prior to the RMZ joint venture, Ascott has invested in all the 6 developments being signed in India thus far. The company top management feels India is one of the key growth engines of Asia and continues to attract foreign investments due to its huge domestic market and sizeable educated workforce. On the demand side, the management believes that with increasing business travel into India and inter-city travel, demand for quality accommodation will increase significantly.

As for The Citadines Galleria Bangalore project is concerned, it will be part of a mixed development called RMZ Galleria and will be Ascott’s second property in the city. Ascott will manage the serviced apartment units when it gets operational in 2014. Located in Yelanhanka, the property is close to industrial parks such as the Kirloskar Business Park and Manyata Tech Park.

Also read: Serviced apartments' growth on a fast track in India

Reliance Broadcast, RTL Group JV to launch a bouquet of thematic television channels in India

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani promoted Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd (RBNL) is partnering with Europe’s RTL Group for a joint venture to launch a bouquet of thematic television (TV) channels in India. A preliminary, non-binding term sheet has been signed wherein RBNL (through its subsidiary) and RTL will have equal (50%) equity interest in the joint venture. Financial details however have been kept under wraps.

Industry sources familiar with the development said the JV will initially broadcast English Language general entertainment channels and add Hindi and regional channels at a later stage. "To start with, the JV would include English language international content, mainly from RTL Group’s production arm Fremantle Media. At a later stage, the duo are likely to explore Hindi Language and regional language general entertainment channels in the next phase," said the source requesting anonymity.

RBNL officials when contacted refrained from commenting on the aforesaid development.

RTL is Europe's leading operator of radio and television network with a market cap of $15.5 billion. With 40 television channels and 33 radio stations in 10 countries, it is one of the world’s leading producers of television content such as talent and game shows, drama, daily soaps and telenovelas, including Idols, Got Talent, The X Factor, Good Times - Bad Times and Family Feud. The Luxembourg-based company operates leading TV channels and radio stations in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Greece, Russia, Hungary and Croatia.

A multi-media conglomerate with presence across radio, television, out of home and live entertainment RBNL’s current television portfolio includes three channels (BIG CBS Prime, BIG CBS Spark and BIG CBS Love) through a joint venture with CBS Studios International. The entertainment company (RBNL) had recently acquired Imagine Showbiz from Cinestar Advertising Pvt Ltd and the channel is expected to be re-branded and launched shortly. In fact, the Reliance Group already has licenses for approximately 20 channels, which are expected to launch in phases through RBNL.

For the quarter ended December 2010, RBNL posted a consolidated total income of Rs 70 crore, with a consolidated EBITDA margin of Rs 6.5 crore. Its radio operations achieved break even, turning EBIT positive. The company had received approval to raise Rs 400 crore last year and has already raised Rs 283 crores by allotting shares to investors and company promoters. RBNL has also received FIPB approval of Rs 45.47 crore.

Wipro Consumer surpasses average industry growth rates

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Wednesday March 9, 2011.

Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting (WCCL), the FMCG vertical of IT major Wipro, has surpassed average industry growth figures in the lighting and furniture space during the current fiscal.

Parag Kulkarni

WCCL has registered 26% growth in the lighting segment and 32% growth in the furniture segment despite strong competitors such as Philips, Crompton Greaves, Bajaj, Godrej, Blowplast, Featherlite, etc, it said.

Parag Kulkarni, vice-president & business head - commercial lighting & furniture business, WCCL, told DNA Money, “The industry average growth in the lighting segment is 15-16% and in the furniture space it is around 18%.”

Kulkarni attributes WCCL’s numbers to innovation, introduction of new products at regular intervals and working closely with customers.

“This apart, we take a bouquet approach to addressing the customers’ needs, which is very unique to us. We are the only company which offers solutions in lighting, furniture, chair, electronic security and switches under the same roof,” said Kulkarni.

The company is among the fastest growing FMCG in India. Post acquisitions of Unza Holdings and Yardley, WCCL is currently amongst the top 10 FMCG players in the country.

The FMCG business has three main segments — Indian Household business (includes personal care and domestic lighting), Unza (the international personal care business spanning across Asia and Africa) and the Indian Office Solutions business.

With combined revenues of `2,250 crore in 2010, WCCL has registered an overall growth of 23% by the end of third quarter of the current fiscal. Not looking to tap international markets, the WCCL management envisages huge potential in the domestic consumption story and is aggressively addressing the needs with its range of products.

Its institutional business rakes in around 27% of revenues and services a lot of industrial applications that revolve around lighting.

“Infrastructure projects is where we sees tremendous growth in the coming years. For instance, Terminal 3 at Delhi International Airport has used a lot of our lighting and furniture products. A few other names in the list include Reliance and Siemens. Our products are extensively used by these large corporates for all their commercial and industrial establishments,” said

Kulkarni.

Going forward, WCCL will focus on the light emitting diode (LED) space and the company management sees very good business opportunities for its indoor and outdoor lighting solutions based on LED.

Movenpick to manage Kamakhya's Dharamshala resort

Movenpick Hotels & Resorts is all set to unveil its second project in India. The Swiss hotel company (Movenpick) has signed a long-term management contract Kamakhya Hospitality Services Pvt Ltd (KHSPL) which is the asset owning company for a resort development in Northern India. Christened Movenpick Dharamshala Resort & Spa, the property expects to take the design and delivery of upscale remote properties to a completely new sustainable level.

Jean Gabriel Peres, president and CEO, Movenpick Hotels & Resorts, said the project will be very unique wherein the management will Get the community involved in all stages of its development. "Its key attraction will be a 2,500sqm ayurvedic spa which will feature extensive preventive health programmes, detox sessions, international treatments alongside ayurvedic, meditation and yoga therapies," said Peres.

Featuring 124-rooms approximately 2,400m above sea level in the upper reaches of the Kangra Valley, the resort is surrounded by a dense forest and the Himalayan Mountains and will open in 2013. As befits the resort's stunning Himalayan setting, it is in the sustainable arena where Movenpick Hotels & Resorts is really pulling out all the environmental stops.

Sourcing for the entire development (construction process) will be done locally and will involve available materials in the Himalayan region. This apart energy-efficient systems will be installed to harness wind, solar and hydro power. The resort will also serve organic vegetables and fruits, and local products from rural farms nearby.

"Links with the local community won't end there, with guest programmes set to provide the opportunity to interact with villagers and learn about their mountainous lifestyles - and perhaps pick up a tip or two on the secrets to their longevity," said Andreas Mattmuller, chief operating officer, Movenpick Hotels & Resorts, Middle East & Asia.

In addition, the resort's lobby will double up as the living room and serve as a centre point for socialising and gathering around open fire places. The hotel will face the Dhauladhar mountain range and rooms will vary from 45sqm (standard) to 70sqm (suites). Offering a wide range of food and beverage options, guests patronising the resort will also get to undertake varied activities including mountain biking and trekking to adventure sports etc.

Vijay Sharma, chairman, Kamakhya Hospitality, said, "Movenpick is an upscale international brand with experience of operating renowned retreat resorts and we have partnered with them to manage the resort in a long-term, sustainable fashion."

Accessing the resort will require guests to take a one-hour flight from New Delhi to Gaggal, followed by a 40-minute drive through spectacular mountain ranges, trails and gorges.

Movenpick Hotels & Resorts is aggressively looking to expand in the fast-growing Indian market. Once opened, the resort will their second property in the country. "Adding this landmark property to our portfolio follows our global objective to expand our presence in India as we set to open the Movenpick Hotel & Spa Bangalore this spring," concluded Mattmuller.

Sterling Holidays has overseas buyout, local push in mind

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Saturday March 5, 2011.

Sterling Holiday Resorts (India) Ltd plans to expand overseas post its restructuring exercise which began in 2008. After having streamlined its operations, the company has chalked out aggressive growth plans that include acquiring resort properties overseas as well as in India. As part of this strategy, the Chennai-based BSE-listed, vacation ownership and leisure hospitality company plans to add six properties to its existing portfolio of 14 resorts. The additions are likely to be done within the next 12 months from now.

Siddharth Mehta, vice chairman, Sterling Holidays, said the management has already identified potential properties and is currently in negotiation with the respective asset owners for acquisitions and long-term lease arrangements. “Our international presence will include destinations that are within five to six hours of flying distance from India. Thus, destinations in the South Asia Pacific region will fit well in this plan because asset prices and the cost of debt are cheaper there compared to India. We are hoping to close these transactions in the next few quarters. This apart, we will also commission two greenfield projects this year. Construction is expected to begin shortly and these resorts will get online by 2014.” he said.

Mehta is also chief executive officer of Bay Capital Partners which currently owns 31% in Sterling Holidays. The acquisition was made in two tranches. So far, Bay Capital has invested $13.8 million.

Of the six additions, three will be international destinations (Far East, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka) while the remaining three resorts will be located in Goa, Kumarakom and a religious tourism destination. The company also plans to add nearly 800 guest rooms to its current inventory of 1,221 rooms across 12 destinations such as Kodaikanal, Ooty, Yercaud, Munnar, Goa, Lonavala, Manali, Mussorie, Darjeeling, Puri, Gangtok and Yelagiri. By March 2012, Sterling Holidays is targeting an inventory of over 2,000 in its network of properties across 20 to 22 locations.

The new additions, according to company officials, are expected to add Rs300-350 crore in revenues. “As these (acquisitions) are operational assets, we are confident about increasing revenues from the current Rs50 crore to Rs400 crore in a couple of years from now,” said Mehta.

Funding for the growth will initially come through internal accruals. However, the management will raise funds once the inorganic plans start fructifying. Besides cash on books, the company has arranged debt required for initial capital expenditure (capex). The management has also taken a call on raising funds through a mix of financial instruments (equity and debt) at a later stage. “While we haven’t put an exact figure to the quantum of money to be raised, it is likely to be in the $30-40 million bracket,” said Mehta.

Sterling recently brought Shahzaad Dalal, vice chairman of IL&FS Investment Managers Ltd (IIML), on board as director. Dalal, had in February 2011, resigned as an independent director from the troubled real estate company DB Realty’s board.

On how Sterling would benefit with Dalal’s appointment, Mehta said Dalal is among the largest private equity investors in the country and his expertise with a host of businesses will come in handy while repositioning Sterling as the leading hospitality company in the country.

The company has also embarked on a major refurbishment drive wherein 35% of its overall inventory has already been refurbished while another 40% will be done in the second cycle, post the peak season starting April 2011.

On the management side, Sterling has hired close to 1,000 people across various levels in the last 14 months. According to industry sources, a significant chunk of this workforce has moved from the leading player and a competitor in the vacation ownership business namely, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts, popularly known as Club Mahindra.

Check-Inn to a new business hotel concept

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Friday, December 3, 2010.

Imagine a mid-market business hotel without a restaurant, coffee shop, bar, business centre, space for meetings and banquets, gymnasium, spa, or even a swimming pool.

A hotel where the management has outsourced all operational requirements — including food and beverage production and service (breakfast and dinner), housekeeping and maintenance, laundry and security — barring only the front office and sales and marketing.

Welcome to the latest concept in hospitality — select service accommodation.

Mumbai-based Check-Inn Hotels Pvt Ltd has just launched its prototype mid-market hotel project in New Delhi’s Connaught Place area. Check-Inn Hotels is the hospitality arm of Mumbai-based Shree Naman Group, which has interests in real estate, financial services, hospitality, energy and ready-mix concrete.

With 43 rooms, Check-Inn New Delhi focuses purely on providing accommodation. It offers rooms in three categories — executive (6), deluxe (35) and superior (2). The room size ranges from 200 sq ft (superior) to 280 sq ft (executive), and the tariff ranges from Rs 4,999 to Rs 7,999 (inclusive of in-room breakfast).

Significantly, the cost of development is only Rs7.85 lakh per room and the staff-to-room ratio is at 0.5:1. The hotel has only 16 people on its payroll, including the hotel’s general manager.

Hemal Modi, chief executive office, CHPL, said the concept took shape after a study indicated that a full-service hotel doesn’t generate enough money to be viable on a profit and loss level despite all that vanity. “That’s when we started thinking about putting together a model by squeezing public areas, back of the house utilities, etc, thereby having a financial discipline to the entire business.”

This was followed by a product orientation exercise to identify the key requirements of a business traveller with an average length of stay being 1.1 day (in layman’s terms, a one-night stay). Working backwards from there, the management sought feedback from corporate travellers on their requirements from a hotel room. “We identified eight focus areas, of which four factors were topmost priority — location, safety & security, comfort (not luxury) and food and hygienic environment. We have covered these areas and added a fifth element — value proposition,” said Modi.

The management has laid down strict quality standards to ensure smooth operations and service delivery. Instead of investing on the operational infrastructure and support functions, it has taken to outsourcing, thereby bringing in operational efficiencies, timely service delivery, cost control and increased profitability.

Food & beverage production and service have been outsourced to a local catering firm, Rupeats, housekeeping & maintenance to Orvis Hospitality, and security to TOPS Security, while a neighbouring professional laundry operator has been roped in to deliver laundry within three hours of requesting the service.

“An open kitchen and supporting infrastructure is provided by us, while the caterer brings in the utensils, gas, supplies and ingredients, cutlery and crockery, production and service staff. The F&B approach is completely in-room dining with a pre-set menu for every day of the week. Dinner is in the form of a pre-plated sumptuous vegetarian thali. The arrangement here is that while the caterer retains 60% of the overall F&B revenues, we get to keep 40%,” said Modi. Similarly, with housekeeping, everything from towels, linen, pillows, curtains, cleaning chemicals, equipment and manpower is brought in by the outsourced company wherein Check-Inn pays the company a lump sum.

As for laundry, there is a very insignificant mark-up of Rs10 on the laundry operators servicing cost per apparel.

In terms of development, the Check-Inn New Delhi property was initially a cold shell and the management acquired it on a long lease from the asset owners. Interestingly, the hotel has been made operational in exactly nine months of taking possession of the cold shell, thereby lowering the breakeven. The entire approach, according to Check-Inn’s initial study, significantly increases the possibility of the product getting easily absorbed in the market.

“An important factor to be considered here is that Indian customers are highly price sensitive and if they buy into the product, the hotel is very likely to start running from day one as against crawling (3 years), walking (2 years) and running (if lucky i.e.) in case of upscale full-service hotels,” he said. That’s precisely the reason why the CHPL management is targeting a breakeven within 12 months from the launch date (October 2010).

At 35% occupancy (without any promotional spend) and an average room rate of Rs6,000, Modi sees the numbers scaling up well especially with busy season in the coming months. However, he  maintains that the hotel's business does not depend much on the seasonality aspect as the target customer base is largely domestic business and transit travellers looking for a no vanity functional accommodation in the heart of New Delhi.

With the select service accommodation prototype already rolled out, Check-Inn is currently working on its second project coming up in Mumbai. The hotel site at CST Road Kalina (close to Bandra Kurla Complex) has been identified already and the management is in the process of getting necessary permissions and approvals for the development.

The Mumbai hotel will have almost double the number of rooms as the New Delhi hotel, while everything else remains constant. The CHPL development team is also in the process of identifying a site in Bangalore and is likely to close it in the coming months.

“Once key metros have been covered, we will set up a shared service centre that will help streamline and centralise the entire sales and marketing, rooms reservation process for the hotel chain. Thereafter, we will get into the franchise mode under Check-Inn Xpress, Check-Inn Premier and Check-Inn Residences across other potential locations in the country. Only the owned and managed hotels will sport the Check-Inn Hotel brand,” said Modi.

DB Realty deal with Starwood Capital in doldrums

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Friday February, 18 2011.

Recent controversies surrounding DB Realty may have forced private equity firm Starwood Capital to junk plans for investing in one of its premier projects.

DB Realty, India’s third-largest realty firm by market capitalisation, was in talks with Starwood Capitalto invest Rs 450 crore for a 10-15% stake in the Government Bandra Colony project.

However, a senior executive affiliated to a private equity firm said Starwood Capital is no longer considering the investment.

“There is no substance whatsoever in Starwood Capital participating in this fundraising exercise by DB Realty. It appears to be a desperate effort by the realtors to attract more investor participation to fund this development,” the executive said.

However, a DB Realty spokesperson maintained the deal is in the works. “Starwood Capital is considering investment in the Bandra Government Colony project and we have signed a non-binding term sheet.”

“Due diligence is in progress and we do not have any information of them backing out of the deal,” the spokesperson added.

Meanwhile, lending credence to talk of the deal falling through, DB Realty has restarted negotiations with other private equity firms.

“We were talking to a few PE funds. However, we now have a couple of domestic investors looking at this project and we should quickly be able to finalise the deal and pay the money to the government,” the spokesperson said.

“We are talking to a domestic private equity fund investor to raise Rs 600-800 crore. The stake sale of 25-30% was a back-up to the Starwood one and we are looking to probably close the deal soon,” another DB Realty official said on condition of anonymity.

DB Realty was first in talks with HDFC India Real Estate Fund (HIREF) to raise Rs 450 crore, but the fund backed out.

“The project at present has 3-3.5 FSI and they have valuated everything based on a FSI of 4 that they think they will get because it is a MMRDA project. But if they don’t get the 4 FSI the project is totally inviable. That’s why we backed out from it,” a senior HIREF official said.

That’s when Starwood Capital entered the picture, albeit offering a lower valuation. The developer had indicated in August 2010 that it would sell 20% stake in the project for Rs 1,200 crore, whereas now it is eager to sell off 25-30% stake for half the amount.

The company has to make a payment of Rs803 crore by the end of February to keep the project in its stable.

An analyst affiliated to a domestic brokerage felt the current market situation is not good enough for projects of this size to command premiums.

“The valuations have come down and their plan to sell at Rs20,000 per square feet is now a concern,” the analyst said.

An email sent last week to Starwood Capital’s officials in the US and to Sundaram V Rajagopal, managing director, Starwood Capital India Advisors Pvt Ltd, remained unanswered.

Last week, it was reported in the stock exchanges that Shahzaad Dalal, an independent director on DB Realty board, had resigned. It is learnt that Dalal, vice-president of IL&FS Investment

Managers, had sent his resignation to the company last year in November and the embattled real estate group kept his resignation in abeyance for three months, underscoring a shaky governance record.

Incidentally, Sundaram V Rajagopal also serves as non-executive non-independent director of DB Realty Ltd. Given the controversies surrounding the realtor, there is concern on whether Rajagopal will remain on the company’s board.

“He is close to the DB Realty promoters and is on their board in his personal capacity,” a source said. “His presence on the board cannot be seen as a representation from Starwood Capital. Now whether he will resign from the board or hold on to the position is something he will have to take a call on. Having said that, I’d presume that being the India head of a globally renowned investment firm, he should probably step down from the realty company’s board on ethical grounds.”

(My DNA Money colleague Pooja Sarkar contributed to this story)

Piracy booms, Indian channels bleed

This story first appeared in DNA main edition on Saturday February 2, 2011.

The popularity of Indian soap operas and television shows in the Asia-Pacific region has turned piracy into a booming industry. Cashing in on the craze for serials from Zee, Sony, Star and other channels, local broadcasters are beaming these illegally into homes in Afghanistan.

Tarun Mehra, territory head, Zee International Business, said the company has been monitoring such illegal practices in some countries in the Asia-Pacific region. This is blatant violation of intellectual property rights (IPR), he added.

“There are some channels who legitimately buy our content to show it on their network. However, evidence gathered by our team has shown that Afghan TV is misusing our content and making financial gains from it,” said Mehra.

The spokesperson for Star TV did not comment on the issue while Sony and Colors could not be reached. Officials from the Afghan embassy in Mumbai did not responded to questions either.

The Afghan TV pirates have a carefully thought out business model. Popular television content is procured by downloading it using a direct-to-home box. This is followed by dubbing the shows in the local language (Pashto) and then beaming it on their network.

Afghan TV, sources said, operates primarily with Indian content. Broadcasters say serious money is being lost in the process.

“Estimating that a 30-minute soap can be sold anywhere between $200 and $400, loss of potential revenue in case of every such soap works to around $100,000 per annum. On a conservative estimate, the overall loss of revenue due to piracy of GEC content for all Indian players can be anything upwards of $2 million,” said Mehra.

Zee has taken up the matter with the Afghan Embassy and will pursue it with industry bodies and the government to regularise this stream.

Losses due to piracy are not restricted to Afghanistan alone. Many other countries blatantly violate Indian entertainment content. Experts said piracy has gained momentum in countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Middle-East too.

While it wasn’t that big a phenomenon earlier, the practice has picked up significantly in the last few years. Based on Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia estimates, broadcasters peg the overall losses from piracy in 2010 to be over Rs9,000 crore.

An annual pay-TV piracy survey of 15 Asia-Pacific markets conducted by the association in 2009 estimated annual revenue loss of $1.94 billion while the annual pay-TV revenue leakage in Asia in 2008 was estimate to be $1.75 billion.

Cox & Kings expects foreign buyouts by June

The story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Wednesday February 09, 2011.

Cox & Kings Ltd, the tour operator, said it’s in the final stages of making more than one acquisition by June this year. Peter Kerkar, executive director, Cox & Kings, said the company is currently in negotiations.

“The advantage for us is that, we are in a position to act fast and conclude the transaction the moment the opportunity is appropriate. We expect to do so within the quarter ending June,” said Kerkar. The buyouts being looked at include in Europe, the UK, the US and China. Funding will largely be done through monies raised by the company in the recent past.

Cox & Kings currently has liquid funds of Rs1,052 crore, earmarked for acquisitions. Of this, approximately Rs640 crore is parked outside India. Anil Khandelwal, chief financial officer, Cox & Kings, said, the large sum is parked outside because there are certain jurisdictions where a serious discussion with an acquisition target cannot be had unless funds are shown as available.

Morgan Stanley analysts Nillai Shah, Hozefa Topiwalla, Girish Achhipalia and Ashwini Kamath in a recent report estimated that Cox & Kings is currently trading at 17 times its next fiscal’s earnings and has close to Rs1,200 crore of cash on its balance sheet. “While the markets seem overlyconcerned about it destroying capital through acquisitions, the company also has a successful track record in creating value from acquisitions, and this cash presents an attractive option value for investors. If it can deploy this cash at even half its current adjusted return on capital employed (RoCE), the returns thereon would double current profits,” the quartet said.

Cox & Kings recently announced its financial results for the third quarter ended December 31, 2010, where net sales rose 37% to Rs108.31 crore compared with Rs78.89 crore earlier. Net profit rose 20% to Rs23.34 crore compared with Rs19.53 crore in the year-ago period. Diluted earnings per share stood at Rs3.52 compared with Rs4.07 in the corresponding period of last fiscal year. “The decrease in earnings per share is due to fresh issue of shares during GDR in August 2010,” said top company official.

Operators, experts laud revised plan for cable TV digitisation

The story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Tuesday February 08, 2011.

The information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry’s revised schedule, for digitisation of cable TV across the country, is seen as a significant development by operators. This move, according to industry experts, is a positive and practical step.

According to analysts Nikhil Vora and Swati Nangalia at IDFC Securities, the I&B ministry’s response to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) recommendations, is a critical development for digitisation in the country.

“We expect India to reach 86 million digital homes by 2015, as against over 30 million currently. However, the regulatory push towards digitisation could potentially underpin faster growth in the overall industry. The Cabinet approval is the final step for these proposals to get implemented, which is likely to be received in the next three months,” the analysts said in their report

In the next 5-odd years, India is likely to be the second largest digital market in the world, aiding the addressal of the industry’s biggest bane of ‘under-declaration’. This will lead to a significant leap (6.5 times) in the organised industry to $7.7 billion (from the current $1.2 billion). Similarly, the capital requirement of the industry would be pegged at $5 billion.

Some of the leading players in this segment include WWIL, DEN Networks and Hathway Cables. Analysts covering the space envisage over 50% returns on the stocks of these companies from current levels.

The cost of digitisation, largely, requires setting up optical fibre network and supplying set top boxes (STBs) to subscribers.

The key challenge, however, comes from local cable operators (LCOs), who have a vested interest in operating the analogue version and hence are not supportive of the digitisation policy. However, with the policy amendment expected soon, it will be mandatory for LCOs to adopt digitisation, which will improve the overall health of the cable TV industry.

A senior official from a leading cable TV company asserted that digitisation is very crucial for multi-system operators (MSOs), as it will bring in complete transparency as far as subscription numbers are concerned.

“MSOs are losing money on account of under declaration by LCOs. Digitisation will solve this problem to a great extent. Besides, the subscriber will now get better services at very attractive prices, since cable operators will get a level playing field to compete with the direct to home (DTH) players,” said the official requesting not to be identified.

A media and entertainment sector analyst with a domestic equity research firm, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “The development is positive in the medium term for industry players. LCOs resorting to disclosing just about 10 to 15% of their subscriber base will eventually have to make complete disclosure. However, DTH operators will now have to face inter-segment competition in the metros and Tier I cities, as MSOs will be able to offer comparable services to subscribers. There is a possibility that average revenue per user (ARPU) for DTH operators may come under pressure. However, Tier II and III markets will continue to see growth in DTH subscriber base as MSOs / LCOs may take a while to spread their network there.”

In August 2010, Trai had suggested key recommendations for the Indian cable distribution space, including a sunset date of December 2013 for complete migration.

The ministry’s new rollout schedule in Phase I, suggests the launch of the new format, starting with four metros by March 31, 2012 instead of March 31, 2011, as proposed by Trai. In Phase II, which include cities with population of over 1 million to be covered by March 31, 2013, while the rest of the country is to witness analogue to digital migration by March 31, 2015. Paucity of STBs and related supply issues, in addition to the need for increased investments towards digitisation, were cited as key reasons for deferring Trai’s recommended sunset clause.